WAFF | World's Armed Forces Forum: Time for truce with the Taliban

Time for truce with the Taliban
By Patrick Seale Special to Gulf News
Published: September 10, 2009, 22:57

In what is nothing less than a cry of alarm, Germany, France and Britain have called for an international conference on Afghanistan before the end of the year. This initiative reflects the urgency of the situation, and must be applauded.

There is wide recognition in Europe - and increasingly also in the United States - that the war against the Taliban is going badly; that coalition casualties and costs are spiralling; and that restive Western opinion is beginning to demand a timetable for withdrawal.

In spite of some relatively bullish statements from Western leaders, including from new Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the truth is that there is not even a glimmer of light at the end of this atrocious tunnel.

Last Friday's Nato airstrike on two hijacked fuel trucks in the province of Kanduz, which killed more than 100 people, including many children, may prove to be a turning point in the conflict. It has aroused furious outrage among Afghans, from President Hamid Karzai down to ordinary tribesmen. It points to the gross failings of Western military tactics, as well as to the weakness of the overall military-political strategy.

The paradox is that the West is using essentially military means against the Taliban, even though almost everyone concerned, including Obama himself, readily admit that there is no purely military solution to the problem. Out of the more than 100,000 Western troops deployed there, 68,000 are American, and more may be called for. The US has already spent $220 billion on the war in Afghanistan since 2001.

So, what is to be done?

Indeed, a key puzzle at the heart of the Afghan conflict is what to do about the Pashtun, a great band of armed, poor yet fiercely independent tribal people, who live in the barren high mountains and isolated valleys that link the south of Afghanistan to the north-west of Pakistan, across the so-called Durand Line, drawn by Britain in the late 19th century.

The Pashtuns on both sides of the line have no unified political institutions. They are governed by their simple tribal code, which is Pashtunwali, or the way of the Pashtuns. Melmastia means that hospitality and protection must be given to every guest. Nanawati means that asylum and sanctuary must be given to every fugitive, even to a bitter enemy. Badal is the rule of vendetta, which means that every insult, every theft, every attack on one's family, every wounding or killing, must be avenged. Settlement of a vendetta can sometimes be reached at a tribal gathering or jirga, by the payment of blood money or the handing over of a daughter to the offended party as a wife or slave.

If a Pashtun host fails to protect his fugitive guest, it is a desperate stain on his honour. A host will allow himself to be killed rather than allow his guest to be captured. This helps to explain the relations between the Pashtun and those members of Al Qaida who enjoy their protection.

In 1839, the British invaded Afghanistan and put a puppet king on the throne. Their intention was to create a tribal 'buffer' state between themselves and their great rivals, the Russians, who were then advancing into Central Asia. But the Afghan puppet king could not look after himself, and when the British troops left, they were slaughtered.

Between 1857 and 1881, the British launched no fewer than 23 expeditions into the hills - including the Second Afghan War of 1878-80 - to try to tame the tribal people and stop them raiding the populations of the foothills. But they all failed. It was in 1893 that the British concluded that a formal frontier needed to be established between Afghanistan and British India.

Between 1893 and 1896 a boundary of more than 3,000 kilometres was traced - the Durand Line - but this was an artificial political boundary cutting through villages, families and tribes. As the line was very porous, allowing people to pass easily back and forth, it became from then on a source of great instability, as it is to this day.

In the 1980s, Pakistan used the tribal areas to launch the mujahideen against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was where it trained the Taliban, as well as Kashmiri fighters. Pakistan may not have anticipated that the Afghan Taliban would become a fanatical body opposed as much to Kabul as to Islamabad.

The Pashtun tribes are deeply hostile to anything that might affect their cherished way of life. Although poor and backward, they are formidable fighters. The statistics are depressing. Fifty-seven per cent of people in the tribal areas do not have access to clean water; the literacy rate is 17 per cent, dropping to three per cent for women. There are 7,670 people per doctor.

What is required is a broad vision for the wider region involving Afghanistan , Pakistan, India, Iran and the states of Central Asia. Neither America, nor Britain, nor any member of the Nato coalition, appears to have such a vision.

The international conference on Afghanistan, which the major European powers want to convene before the end of the year, should declare a truce with the Taliban, bring military operations to a halt, and prepare to address the real problems of what is one of the most neglected parts of the world.

Patrick Seale is a commentator and author of several books on Middle East affairs

Pakistan Airforce: The largest distributor of Indian airforce parts in Asia

Pathankot Strike
8 F-86Fs of No 19 Squadron led by Squadron Leader Sajjad Haider struck Pathankot airfield. With carefully positioned dives and selecting each individual aircraft in their protected pens for their strafing attacks, the strike elements completed a textbook operation against Pathankot. Wing Commander M G Tawab, flying one of the two Sabres as tied escorts overhead, counted 14 wrecks burning on the airfield. Among the aircraft destroyed on the ground were nearly all of the IAFs Soviet-supplied Mig-21s till then received, none of which were seen again during the War.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFHlzP69n9c

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